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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Electrolux was running a very interesting competition on twitter to promote their involvement in Cannes Film Festival. The competition was to upload a photo of a dish that you have cooked and link it to a movie that goes with it. And if you are the winner then you get to dine in a Michelin Star restaurant. tempting isn't it? I tweeted my current cover photo and guess which movie I went for. Well its pretty obvious, Chocolat ! Since then I have kept my fingers crossed and not opened yet! Metaphorically of course otherwise life will be pretty tough!

Apparently Electrolux products like Built-in oven and induction hobs are very popular with Michelin star chefs. I was looking to change my oven recently and if it is good for Michelin star chefs it should be great for a home cook like me. However I would be grateful if you let me know which oven you use and what would you recommend me to have. It will be a great help for me when I buy the oven.

Now, this bank holiday weekend was sunny, warm, clear blue sky for us which is a very rare combination here in this part of the world. To match up to the weather I tried a spicy hot prawn noodles at home. It is a go with the flow recipe really, just throwing what ever I had in the fridge in the the wok and mixed with the flat white Vietnamese's noodles I got from the Asian store.

Ingredients:

Flat noodles

200gm King prawns (raw)

1 Onion (sliced lengthwise)

2-3 Garlic cloves (chopped)

1 tsp Ginger (thinly sliced)

2 Spring onion (chopped)

Mushrooms (thinly sliced)

3 Red Peppers (long and thin ones, not the bell pepper, sliced)

1-2 Green chillies (chopped)

2-3 tbsp Spicy chilli bean paste

2 tbsp Soy sauce (light)

Salt

Oil

Method:

Cook the noodles in the salted boiling water for the time its mentioned in the pack. I did it for 8-10 minutes. On the other hob heat a wok with 3-4 tbsp of oil. Once the wok is smoking hot first fry the raw prawns for 2-3 minutes or until they turn pink. Fish them out of the wok and keep it separate. Now add the ginger and garlic to the same oil, fry them a bit then add rest of the vegetables and continue to fry. Keep stirring continuously. Add the soy sauce and the spicy chilli bean paste and keep stirring. Meanwhile check the noodles if its done. Don’t overcook it else it wont be nice. When the vegetables are ready add the prawns and the noodles to it and mix well. Take it off the hob, sprinkle some chopped spring onion on top and serve immediately.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Dieting and I don't go well together. Especially because most of the ones I followed or tried to follow has instructions like don't eat this and that. Usually these things will be my favourite things or something that I would like to eat. Hence invariably they failed. If I have been asked not to eat something I feel more attracted to that food than I usually I am and in the end I end up eating it and there goes my diet plan, flushed away. Have a look at this video, you will know what i mean.

Recently when I received few coupons from LowLow to try out their product, I was tempted. And why shouldn't I, I like cheese and most morning my breakfast is toast with spread on and coffee. If I can get a low calorie yet tasty spread, which will make my mornings a little less guilt free, then why not?

Although initially I thought of having at breakfast, I couldn't resist having a taste in the evening. I got two types of these cheese spread one plain and the other one with crushed black pepper in it. I served it as a dip to our starter and believe me it went really well with a glass of red wine. I tried it on this crackers and the salami just to see how well it goes and it blends in perfectly well.

If you want to try this cheese spread then let me know by leaving a comment here or on my FB page within next 2 weeks and at the end of it I will pick two winners in random to send the coupons.Each one will receive £12 worth of coupons that they can use to buy any LowLow products. These coupons can be used in the UK only. So come on don't be shy, just leave a comment here or on my FB page for a chance to win.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Recently I was invited to one of my friends place and since she is from South India, she had promised me that I will get my favourite masala dosa, that too home made. I was counting on it and it was worth the wait! Lovely crispy thin dosa packed with delicious potato filling and served with spicy red and green chutney. Here are few pictures from her kitchen.

Since I had it there, all I could think of is masala dosa! I loved it and wanted more of it! Until now I had made dosa from a packet, that to with not much success. I knew making dosa from the scratch could be a huge risk. I have never done it before and doing this I might actually end up with no dinner tonight. After lot of tossing, turning and some research on youtube, I decided to go with it.

The recipe I followed can be found here. But I made slight changes. I didn’t leave the dosa batter in the oven, over night as I didn't have the time, so I used 1 sachet of yeast instead and it worked fine. As evident in the picture that mine is a distant cousin of the authentic one, it still tasted good and we didn’t go to bed empty stomach!

If you are also craving for one now then just follow her recipe and you wont be disappointed.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Bank holiday weekend started with a very cute delivery in the post! There was a knock on the door and after few seconds S walked in with this cute green box and handed over to me. I was pleasantly surprized with Walker’s packaging, very funny and creative!

I loved the little book I found first in the box. Cute and innovative way of marketing the product. its a book that kids would like to see or play with, at the same time Walkers are sending their message clearly to the right audience.

Next there was a cute monkey holding a packet of the Walker’s latest product Hoops and Crosses, baked snacks. Matching with the box and the book there was a rather cute monkey inside the box with the sample pack, which I thought that was brilliant!

Now it was time to taste test it. I receiver the wholegrain hoops and crosses with roast beef flavour. I opened the pack and offered it to my little one to see if he takes a bite or not! He ate the first bite and looked at me hoping for more. At the end he had half of that 85gm packet. I can safely say that he liked it more than I did! Thank you so much for sending the sample packet to us, my son loved it!